Foundation Repair Job
This job was performed on a 20+ year old home with a view that was built on a hillside. The original owners still lived in the house.
Mainland Concrete Lifters Inc. was contacted to perform an Elevation Survey and provide a Scope of Repair. The Elevation Survey revealed the following:
The Scope of Repairs included selective demolition, excavation, carbon fibre staples, crack filling, Ram Jack piers, underpinning, drainage system repairs, backfilling, benching, new deck and concrete walks, staircases and other exterior remedial work under the direction of a structural engineer and a geotechnical engineer.
The residence is tiered down a hillside by the basement being below ground in the front to above ground in the rear. It is virtually built on a rock shelf. Because the builder built following the plans and minimum code requirements to the letter in order to have the municipality pass inspection quickly and quietly, his actions caused grief and expenses to the owners later on. All that would have been required would be a little more forming and concrete to take the footings right down to bearing strata (in this case the rock shelf) and start from there.
Instead the footings were formed at the height described in the plans on top of the approved fill of the day. All that was required would have been to form down to the rock and the footings poured a little more thickly in spots. We are only talking 6" to 24" more along less that 50 % of the exterior perimeter plus the interior bearing wall footings. Now couple this with the approved fill of the day which incidentally washes away when wet, and add Big O drain tiles that ran above the footings and it is a recipe for disaster.
To correct this, excavation was done to the north and east elevation and 25 % of the south elevation, piers were placed as outlined on the piering plan, new double PCV drain pipe was installed, including 100 % of the south elevation, along with selective clean outs along the way and new drains in walkways, cracks were filled and sealed, cracks were stapled then parged, bench underpinning along the upper north and south exterior walls, proper drain rock and backfill rock was installed, benching was done to the landscape on the north elevation, a new deck was constructed on the north elevation, and new concrete sidewalks and staircases were installed.
